Beacon Cottage

Beacon Cottage

This Grade II listed cottage is constructed of Ancaster stone rubble, stuccoed and painted, on a limestone ashlar plinth. The hipped roof is clad in Swithland slate with red clay ridge tiles, and features a replica chestnut modillion eaves cornice dating to the late 20th century.

The building is rectangular in plan with a polygonal bay to the west, a bowed porch to the east, a canted bay to the south added in the 1930s, and a narrow lean-to projection to the north added in the early 20th century. It comprises one storey, a half-cellar and an attic.

The exterior displays regular fenestration with six-over-six pane horned sash windows with timber glazing bars, probably dating to the second half of the 19th century. The east elevation features a central bowed porch with stone castellations, approached through a shallow-arched, half-glazed double-leaf door of 20th-century date with an overlight and flanking windows with diamond-leaded glazing. Sash windows light the bays either side, and there is a central flat-roofed dormer window in the attic. The west elevation has a central polygonal bay lit by three windows under a conical roof, with one sash window in each adjoining bay. The half-cellar is lit by a pair of casements in the central bay and a small window on the left. The canted bay on the south elevation has a window on each side. Two rendered ridge stacks sit on the main block and one on the south extension.

The interior has survived largely unaltered and retains almost all original joinery, fireplaces and fittings, including service bells. A stone-flagged porch with a shallow-arched doorway leads into a central hall paved in Ancaster stone, scored to form a diamond pattern. The hall provides access to the west-facing room and, through pairs of semicircular arched openings with simple roll moulding, to two rooms on the north and south sides. The south-west room connects to the 1930s south extension. The reception rooms have delicate coving and skirting boards, wide timber floorboards, and four-panelled doors. Windows retain panelling underneath, panelled soffits and jambs, shutters and central bars. The principal west-facing room in the polygonal bay has a wide arched recess in the south wall. This room and the south-west room contain reeded fireplaces with brass roundels, with surrounds and hearths of Derbyshire fossiliferous marble. The two north rooms have smaller fireplaces—one reeded, one with guilloche jambs—both with diamond grates, moulded timber surrounds and stone hearths. From the central hall, a half-spiral stone stair descends to an extensive brick-vaulted cellar, which provides access to a stone-lined well and contains alcoves for storage and the remnants of a 19th-century range. A narrow timber stair leads to the attic, where the original roof with principal rafters and purlins is exposed.

On the west side of the cottage stands a ha-ha laid in herringbone red brick. A late 20th-century workshop in the garden is not of special interest.